Chapter 10: Isobel

Elena sat at a table at the Grill waiting. Earlier that morning she got a text from the number that she called two weeks ago, asking her to meet here at 4pm. Her eyes subtly glanced around the room. "Can you hear me?" she whispered, her gaze darting to Stefan. He nodded, from his perch at the upper booths. "Thank you for coming." She glanced at her watch; it was 4:10.

When she glanced up, a beautiful raven-haired woman sat in the chair across from her, observing her with curiosity. "Wow…you look just like her."

Elena's breath caught in her throat. "Isobel."

She placed her purse on the floor beside her and crossed her legs. "A friend of mine tells me you've been trying to find me. Her name's Sophia, I think you met her." she pointed behind Elena towards the pool tables. "She's very pretty…I can see why your friend Matt likes her so much." Elena looked behind her to see the vampire from the pub in North Carolina flirting with Matt where he played pool with Tyler and some other boys from school. Stefan shot up in his seat. "Tell your little boyfriend to sit down…Sophia isn't the only friend I came with." Elena nodded, glancing Stefan's way nervously. Isobel smiled and waved at Stefan. "I'm surprised Elena…I was so sure you'd pick Damon, hm…oh well." she shrugged a shoulder. "I guess you can't choose." her eyes swung back to Elena, looking at her from under thick black lashes and a wicked grin. "Just like Katherine.

Elena grit her teeth and ignored the comment, finally found her voice. "Why did you want to meet me?"

Isobel leaned back with an amused smirk. "Well my initial warning didn't seem to get your attention so I thought I'd bring you your second warning in person." Her eyes turned steely and cold. "I know you want to learn about who I was, bond or whatever…but the truth is you're nothing to me, Elena. So, I suggest you put an end to whatever little Sherlock Holmes investigation you started before people start dying." she added emotionlessly.

Bravery rose in Elena and she smiled tightly. "I don't believe you. I do mean something to you…otherwise your friend would have killed me when she had the chance." she crossed her arms over her chest.

Isobel huffed out a cynical laugh. "Let's talk about friends shall we. I think I've got this down…" She looked around the Grill, her head tilted slightly. "There's Tyler Lockwood; anger issues, football jock, affinity to the moon…" she mumbled offhandedly, drawing a frown of confusion from both Elena and Stefan, who was still watching intently. "Then there's Matt Donovan, sweet little Matty blue eyes…everyone's favorite small-town lifer." She shifted in her seat, nodding to the bar. "Bonnie Bennett, Mystic Falls' resident witch…gonna stay away from that one. And then there's Caroline; head cheerleader, popular…the American teenaged dream." Elena and Isobel watched as Caroline strolled by arm in arm with a good-looking man with dark hair and green eyes, headed for the back-door exit. "It's a shame that today is the day she dies." she said on a sigh, before turning back to Elena. "But I guess you can blame yourself for that." Stefan was up and running after them. "He'll never make it in time. Sad." her lower lip protruded out in an exaggerated pout.

Elena stood, tears in her eyes, but Isobel grabbed her wrist tightly. "Let go of me." she pinned the raven-haired woman with a hateful sneer. "How can you sit here and be so heartless? I'm your daughter." she couldn't keep the tremor from her voice.

Isobel shook her head. "Don't look for any redeeming qualities in me…there aren't any."

"I'm glad that you turned out to be such a colossal disappointment. Keeps the memory of my real mother, perfectly intact." she wrenched her arm out of her grasp, and ran after Stefan. When she burst through the back door, she saw the man with Caroline smile at her, before flipping his hood up and speeding off. Her eyes settled on the ground, and her hand shot to her mouth. "Caroline!" She ran over and dropped to the ground pulling her friend into her lap. "Oh my god, no, no, no." she whispered over and over, her hands shaking as realized the horribly twisted angle of her neck.

"Elena…" she heard the groan from further down the alley, and saw Stefan, crawling towards her, a wooden broomstick protruding from his back. "I tried to stop him…"

As carefully as she could, she placed her friend gently on the ground, tears falling from her eyes and blurring her vision. On her hands and knees, she made her way over to him, and pulled the wood out of his back. He immediately rolled over, choking, and trying to regain his strength.

"You're not healing Stefan, is this normal?" She glanced around hoping no one found them this way. "You need blood…we need to get her out of here." she cried. When he didn't response, and she saw his eyes start to close, Elena the grabbed the broomstick, and used the broken end to slit her wrist open. "Drink Stefan…you need to drink." she put her arm to his mouth and his eyes popped open. "That's it…"

"No!" he struggled to escape but he was too weak. "I can't." he pleaded desperately.

She pressed harder. "It's okay. I trust you…you have to control it." the veins under his eyes reddened and his fangs sunk into her skin as he clutched her hand to his mouth as he drank greedily from her. "Ow…Stefan." She whimpered under his intense grip. "You have to stop." Her words only spurred him into to drinking deeper. "Stefan, stop!" she cried, feeling her body weaken.

After a few more long pulls, he wrenched himself away, urgently putting distance between them, using his sped to crawl over to the brick wall. He took a moment to catch his breath, the blood dripping down his chin. His eyes clashed with Elena's and she was holding her hand to her chest, her eyes hooded as she tried to stop the bleeding. He shot to his feet and bit into his own wrist, holding it out for her to drink; which she did hesitantly. It didn't take long for her wound to heal over completely and for her to regain her strength. "Caroline...we need to get her out of here." He hoisted the blonde into his arms. "Get Bonnie and meet us at the boarding house. We're going to need her when she wakes up."

Elena shook her head. "Wait what…" she eyes Stefan warily. "What do you mean 'when she wakes up'?"

Stefan let his eyes drop to the ground. "When I got outside, he was force feeding her his blood. She died with it in her system. She'll be awake in a few hours…in transition." he added sadly.

She couldn't help the relieved sigh that escaped her lips. Her friend wasn't dead…not really anyways. "Thank God." she uttered.

Stefan shook his head at her naivety, the coppery taste of blood still singing on his lips. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, Elena." he sped off, and she was left in the back alley, alone. She ran back into the Grill, frantically looking for Bonnie. She noticed that Isobel and all of her friends were gone.

There was no time to fill Bonnie in now; there were too many people around. So, with a promise to explain on the way, she dragged her out of the restaurant.

…

Later that night, Elena climbed the stairs with a mug, and knocked gently on the door that they had set Caroline up in. When she heard a faint 'come in' she entered with a tentative smile. "Hey…"

The blonde gave her a meek smile in return. "Hey." she inhaled sharply. "What's that smell?" she asked urgently.

Elena tensed. "It's blood." she placed it on the dresser before walking over to sit on the edge of the bed next to her. "I want you to be sure you know what this means before I give it to you."

Caroline's gaze dropped to her hands. "Stefan explained everything already. If I drink human blood, I'll be a vampire. If I don't…I die." her voice cracked, and a tear fell from her eye. "My mom was killed by vampires, wasn't she?" her pale blue eyes met with Elena's. "And your parents."

She nodded. "Yeah."

The blonde bit her lip solemnly. "Things are coming back to me…in pieces. Like I'm watching a movie. Damon made me forget…" she frowned. "Stefan and Damon…are they vampires?"

"Yes, but you can trust them. Damon has been sort of my keeper." she huffed a small laugh. "He looks out for me. He looks out for all of us."

"You and Bonnie knew about this for so long…and you kept it from me. Why didn't you tell me, Elena?" it pained Elena to hear the hurt and betrayal in her friend's voice.

"We were only trying to protect you, Caroline. Bonnie and I are too far in this. There's no escaping it for us. You were just a normal teenage girl with her whole life ahead of her. You didn't deserve this life." Elena explained sadly. "And it's my fault. Isobel did this to you because of me, so I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you." she reached over and squeezed her hand comfortingly. "I'm so sorry."

Caroline nodded, tears falling freely. "Okay…I'm ready." her eyes darted to the mug, and Elena stood.

Before Elena could make it to the mug, Stefan walked in and grabbed it from the dresser. "I'll take it from here. Some vampires react to the blood differently. It's safer if you aren't here for this."

Elena nodded, casting one last glance at Caroline, before heading back to the parlor room. Tiredly making her way down the stairs, she tunneled her fingers through her hair, trying to wrap her head around everything that just happened. Over the course of the last ten hours, everything had changed. She was thankful that Stefan was here to guide Caroline through it all, because she would have had no idea how to handle this without him or Damon. Her eyes closed…he was going to be so mad. He was gone for a month and everything fell apart.

Plopping onto the couch, she covered her face with a pillow. "This is all my fault." her words were muffed, but Bonnie, who was sitting on the floor, spelling Caroline's daylight ring, made it out clearly.

She pushed herself to her feet, grabbed the pillow and threw it to the other couch. "This isn't your fault. You couldn't have known this would happen." her words said one thing, but her tone said another.

"Be honest Bonnie. You don't have to hold back to make me feel better." she mumbled bitterly, staring at the ceiling.

"Okay, fine. I'm mad, Elena. I'm mad that, Caroline, our best friend, is a vampire now, after everything we did to keep her out of it! I'm mad that you lied to me and to Damon and everyone else about what happened at Duke, and I'm mad that despite all that, you still kept looking for Isobel without letting anyone know! It was stupid, and now our friend is dead." she let out a sharp exhale. "There…I'm done." she added in a softer tone.

Elena nodded, meeting her gaze. "Thank you. I deserved that."

Bonnie plopped down beside her. "Well that's nothing compared to what you're going to get from Damon."

The brunette groaned loudly. "Please don't remind me." she lolled her head to look at her friend with a hopeful expression. "Maybe you can just kill me now and get it over with?"

Bonnie hit her with the other throw pillow. "Not funny…and no, one dead friend is enough for one day." she yawned, and dropped her head back on the back of the couch. "Today sucked."

"Yup." Elena responded before yawning herself. They both slowly drifted off into sleep, unable to keep their eyes open any longer.

…

The next two days were chaotic. Caroline was learning all about her new abilities, but also struggling with her heightened senses.

She looked around the woods in awe, her head snapping to every sound. "I can hear everything. It's like everything is brighter!" she exclaimed on a laugh.

Stefan nodded, tucking his hands in his pockets. "It's one of the perks…you can really appreciate all the little things life has to offer."

"God! I am so hungry!" she grumbled tilting her head back. "Why am I so hungry? Is that just because I'm a newbie vampire?"

He chuckled. "No that never goes away, but we can work on controlling it."

She snapped her head to look at him, a curtain of blonde locks fanning around her. "Hey! do you think I'll be able to go back to school next week? The Miss Mystic Falls Pageant is in two weeks, and our first dance rehearsal is on Monday."

He shot her a hesitant glance. "I don't know if school is such a good idea so soon, Caroline. These first few weeks are the hardest to get through."

"Weeks?!" She practically stomped her foot in frustration. "This is super important, Stefan! This is senior year; Miss Mystic Falls, it's like a right of passage! I've been dreaming about this since I was six years old and I'll be damned if I'm going to miss out on all the milestones, just because I'm a vampire!" she rambled out in one breath, the vein on her forehead coming forth. Stefan sucked in his lips, trying to keep himself from laughing at her outburst. "What?" she snapped.

He composed himself. "Nothing, it's just when someone becomes a vampire, all their natural behavior gets sort of uh…amplified." he explained lamely.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you mean?"

Stefan's hands gestured as he tried to find the words without offending her. "it's just…okay, as a human, I cared deeply for people, and how they felt. If they were hurting, I felt their pain and I'd feel guilty if I was the one who caused it. And as a vampire…all that got magnified." he gestured to her and her little rant as example.

Her shoulders dropped. "So, you're saying that, now, I'm basically an insecure, neurotic, control freak on crack." she drawled slowly.

He shrugged. "Well I wasn't going say it like that." a little smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.

She nodded with a roll of her eyes, as they kept walking. "Great! Like being a teenage girl isn't confusing enough." she grimaced a little. "And now you want me to add bunny killer to the list."

He ducked his head, hiding his smirk. "Yeah, it's an acquired taste."

"Can't I just drink from blood bags? Elena said Damon keeps a whole stash of it at the house." When Stefan offered her to come out and hunt with him the last couple days, she thought she'd give the animal blood a shot, but it was nothing in comparison to the human blood she had the other night.

Stefan nodded to himself. He was almost envious that she was able to have so much more control with her bloodlust after only being a vampire for less than a week. After her first taste, she wasn't ravenous for blood like he was; she never went through bag after bag, unable to quench her thirst. "No one is forcing you to do the animal diet, Caroline. It's just…it's a fine line."

"Well, I'm sorry Stefan, but I don't know how you do it. It's…terrible." she admitted on a nervous laugh.

"I do it because I have to. I'm not the same person when I drink human blood. I…I can't stop." he didn't want to elaborate any more than that. He thought back to when he'd had his last taste, and how hard he fought not to tear Elena's arm from her body. Or how good her blood tasted coating his throat.

Caroline pulled him out of his revere. "Uh oh, you have your serious vampire look."

"My wha…" His head snapped to hers in surprise. "My serious vampire look?" he asked incredulously.

She shrugged a shoulder. "Mm-hmm. I mean, it's different from your worried vampire look, neither of which stray too far from your 'hey, it's Tuesday' look." she teased mercilessly. For the first time since she met him, this was the most time they had ever spent together. She finally felt like they were on the same playing field. He was opening up to her, and she was learning that she liked this Stefan, more than the secretive, dark and mysterious Stefan. Maybe it was because she knew the secret now.

He laughed. He seemed to be doing that a lot today. "Oh…I get it. you think I'm too serious."

She frowned mockingly. "Well I wasn't going to say it like that, but..." she threw back at him. "Can you teach me that superspeed thing you do?"

He was going to get whiplash with the way she jumped through these conversations. "Yeah, come on."

…

It was late. Far too late to be stopping by unannounced for a visit, but he needed to check on her, for his own peace of mind. He used the key he made to let himself in; something he neglected to tell any of the house's residents, and took the stairs two at a time. Pushing the door to her room open, he smiled. Her face was slightly illuminated by the moonlight as she slept; starfished, with her bare feet sticking out from the bottom of the duvet.

As quietly as he could, Damon lowered himself to the bench under the window sill, leaning his back against the wall, so he was facing her.

She stirred slightly, signaling to him that she was waking. And although her eyes remained closed, a lazy smile graced her face. "Damon…" her voice was raspy and bleary. "You're home."

He reeled back, studying her with considerable curiosity. Her eyes were definitely still shut. "Yeah. How could you tell it was me?" he couldn't keep the perplexity out of his tone.

Elena stretched languidly, like a kitten, before curling herself on her side. "I can always feel when you're nearby." she mumbled sleepily; her tone as relaxed as if she were discussing the weather.

Damon stopped; he stopped breathing, stopped moving, stopped thinking. He just stared at her wide eyed, stuck somewhere between amazed and terrified. Katherine's words echoed in his head like a gong. I can always sense when you're near. Now what the hell was that supposed to mean?

"I have to tell you something. A lot has happened." With each word, she sounded like she was closer and closer to falling back into whatever dream she was having before he came in.

He snapped back to himself. "Go back to sleep. You can tell me everything in the morning." Damon watched as she slipped easily out of consciousness, and rested his head back against the wall, hoping to catch a few winks before the sun rose in a few hours.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this one! Some interesting things coming in the next chapter. I have to say I love Caroline as a vampire, more than when she was human. I feel like she's going to add a different dynamic to the group now that she's on the inside. Let me know what you think; I love you reviews! Thanks : ) - Vanessa